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NATIONAL CHARACTER 



THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED NOVEMBER 15th, 1855, 



IN THE 



Jftaitfelin Bttttt Jrtslnjhmit Cjnutjr, 



BY THE PASTOR, 




REV. N. C.BURT, 





1 ! 
p. 
^ of Washing * 


BALTIMORE! 




PRINTED BY JOHN D. 


TOY. 


1855. 





* 4 %i 



Baltimore, November 17, 1S55. 
Rev. N. C. Burt, 

Pastor of Franklin Street Presbyterian Church: 
Dear Sir — We earnestly solicit a copy of the Discourse delivered by you on 
Thanksgiving- day, for publication. 

With great respect, yours, &c. 



George S. Gibson. 
R. K. Hawley. 
J. Henry Stickney. 
I. C. Canfield. 
Horace W. Taylor. 
Jos. B. Fenby. 
S. Patterson. 

C. D. CuLBERTSON. 

R. H. Humphreys. 
Henry D. Harvey. 
David Ferguson. 
John Bigham. 
E. S. Allnutt. 
Chas. U. Stobie. 
H. W. Hayden. 
Hiram Woods. 
Geo. W. Uhler. 
E. B. Baebitt. 
Ashur Clarke. 
M. M. Bigham. 
Wm. L. McCormick. 
Jno. Barber. 
Algernon R. Wood. 
Alexander Close. 
John R. Cole. 
M. Shaw. 
A. Coulter. 
J. Perkins Fleming. 
James V. D. Stewart. 
Joel N. Blake. 
J. Henry Giese. 
W. E. Barber. 
Robert Busby. 



John S. McKim. 
J. Dean Smith. 
David S. Courtenay. 
Wm. R. Seevers. 
S. A. Leakin. 
Patrick Gieson. 
J. P. Polk. 
William White. 
Geo. W. Bradford. 
Edward Duffy. 
Thos. H. Quinan. 
Samuel W. Barber. 
Matthew Horn. 
Morgan. Coleman. 
Stephen Williams. 
James Wilson, Howard-St. 
J. H. Patterson. 
Lancaster Ould. 
Geo. C Morton. 
Geo. Ross Veazey. 
Daniel Holliday. 

D. H. Blanchard. 

E. H. Thomson. 
W. J. Dickey. 
John P. Coulter. 
Alex. E. Brown. 
H. C. Reed. 
Cornelius E. Beatty. 
John T. Dick. 

Wm. H. Brown. 
R. H. Pennington. 
John P. Richardson. 
Robert Leslie. 



Baltimore, November 25, 1855. 
Gentlemen — The request for a copy of my Thanksgiving" Discourse, so 
generally made, I cannot refuse. The manuscript is herewith placed at your 
disposal. 



Very truly yours, 

N. C. BURT. 



Dr. G. S. Gibson. 

R. K. Hawley, Esq. 

J. Henry Stickney, Esq. and others. 



DISCOURSE. 



Psalm 33: 12.— Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. 

We have met to-day, at the call of the Governor of 
this Commonwealth, to render thanks to the Supreme 
Governor of the world for his mercies granted us during 
the past year. Surely we have abundant cause for thanks- 
giviug. In the present instance, our annual festival not 
only calls us to recognize the common bounties of God's 
providence most richly bestowed, but also affords a most 
suitable opportunity for rendering special offerings of 
gratitude for our happy exemption from that pestilence, 
which, for months just past, lifted its frowning clouds in 
our near horizon, and committed its devastations on our 
very borders, — a pestilence which, if God had permitted 
it to march upon our City and to do a like deadly work 
amidst our population, would now be exulting over as 
many slain victims from among us, as there are persons 
now assembled in all our Churches for this thanksgiving 
service. Let us give hearty thanks for this distinguishing 
sparing goodness. 



6 

Being called together by our civil authorities, and that 
to recognize the hand of God over us as a people, the 
occasion is suitable for considering the general subject of 
National Character, and in connection with it, the duties 
and destinies of our own nation. 

What now, to begin at the beginning, is the proper 
idea of a nation? The idea is a complex one, involving, 
to a greater or less extent, the ideas of community of 
birth, community of language, occupation of the same 
territory, citizenship under the same government. 

The ivord nation signifies a body of men descended 
from the same progenitor, — those having community of 
birth. We may, from the sense of the word, call the 
Jews a nation, though using a diversity of languages, 
and though scattered over the earth, without distinct 
territory or separate government. 

Community of language commonly follows upon com- 
munity of birth. Yet community of language does not 
of itself determine or secure nationality. The English 
and ourselves speak the same language, yet are distinct 
nations. The Swiss are one nation, yet speak some of 
them French, others German, others Italian. 

Occupation of the same territory is not essential to 
nationality. Not only may a nation be scattered, — its 
parts dwelling in several lands, — as in the case of the 
Jews, but a nation may migrate in a body and preserve 
its national character in transit, or it may have no fixed 
territorial abode whatever. The Tartars and the Arabs 



are nations ever in motion, and held but the most loosely 
by any tenure of soil. 

And even citizenship under the same government, does 
not of itself exhaust the idea of a nation. Kussia may 
be said to include many nations under her sway. 

Yet the ideas of race, language, country and govern- 
ment, all enter into, and with greater or less distinctness, 
and to a greater or less extent, constitute the general 
idea of a nation. The French have in general the same 
origin: they speak the same language: they possess a 
definite territory: they live under one government. They 
are of Gallic origin: we call their language French: their 
home is France: they are the subjects of Napoleon. 

These several ideas of a nation do not, however, seem 
to be equally essential. It is in the idea of Government, 
the idea of the State, in which an associated body of men 
rises to view as a personality, and as a sovereign power, 
clothed with divine privileges and prerogatives, subsisting 
for high moral ends, dispensing justice amongst its own 
citizens in the name of God, and treating with other 
States as responsible persons like itself, with whom it 
dwells as in a family of nations to possess the earth; — it 
is in this idea that the ideas of community of origin and 
of language, and occupation of the same territory, merge 
themselves as subordinate or accidental, and that our view 
of a nation is most satisfactory and complete. 

The functions of supreme government are rarely exer- 
cised over a very small body of men, And nations need 



8 

to be of some magnitude to realize the benefits of national 
existence. A nation, just in virtue of its national consti- 
tution, is in a measure separated from the rest of man- 
kind. It has an existence by itself. It ought, then, to 
have a completeness in itself. It should be made up of 
so many and such variety of parts, that these parts in 
their inter-action, may produce a sufficient life. Its 
classes of citizens and their occupations, should be so 
diversified and numerous, that in the mutual dependence 
and support, -the highest possible benefit may result. 
Size has to do materially with the idea of a nation. 
This, indeed, makes all the difference between a family 
and a nation, if only sovereign prerogatives be conceded 
to the family, as was done in patriarchal times. It is in 
the life of the State rather than that of the family, that 
we have civilization. The very word civilization implies 
this — civis, being a citizen, and civitas, a State. 

The importance of national relations may be seen in 
the consideration of the nature of history. "What is 
history? Is it a collection of the biographies of individual 
men? We do not, as a fact, give to such collection the 
name of history. History has been called "the biography 
of society. " But of society founded upon what basis, 
working by what agencies, involving what interests, pro- 
posing what ends? Not surely voluntary associations, 
formed for the promotion of the arts, or commerce, or 
philosophy, or benevolent undertakings. Such associa- 
tions are too limited in the numbers which belong to them, 



too narrow and partial in the ends they propose and the 
means they use, to justify us in calling their biography 
history. We must find a society which, as nearly as 
possible, shall comprehend in its members the entire 
human race, command in its workings all human en- 
ergies, involve in its consideration all human interests; 
the biography of such a society we may call history. 
Such a society we find in the State. And it is because 
the whole human race is gathered into nations; it is be- 
cause the State proposes as its true object the highest 
good of all its citizens; and especially is it because the 
State as a sovereign power, not only holds the persons 
and property of its citizens at its disposal, but deals with 
its citizens and with all mankind as moral beings, and as 
itself a moral person responsible to God, — being a sov- 
ereign only as his minister; — it is because of all this, that 
we give the name history to the biography of nations 
rather than to that of any other society. And the idea 
of history generally accepted is this, — it is a record of 
the changes which come over the aspect and fortunes 
of nations, in their self-development and their mutual 
intercourse.* 

* See Dr. Arnold's "Lectures on Modern History." The above statement is 
correct, so long as we take a merely natural view of mankind — so long as we 
view men merely in their moral relations. Viewing men by the light of reve- 
lation and in relations more strictly religious, Church-biography would still 
better deserve the name of history. But for some reason, these religious rela- 
tions are not commonly recognized in their importance. Like the historian, 
the moral philosopher commonly ignores man's lapsed condition, and all the 



10 

The highest truth of history is unquestionably the 
Providence of God. Now, it gives us a most impressive 
view of the importance of national relations, when we 
consider the Bible representation of nations as the great 
agents of God's Providence. The Assyrian nation sent 
against the people of Israel is "the rod of his anger" and 
u the staff of his indignation." Said God to his ancient 
people, "I will bring a nation on you from far, house 
of Israel." Gocl of old sent his prophets to this nation 
and that; Elijah to Israel, Jeremiah to Judah, Jonah to 
Assyria. 

Moreover, the Bible recognizes the importance of na- 
tional relations in the position it assigns to nations in the 
historic and prophetic development of the plan for man's 
redemption. Before the advent of our Saviour, God was 
in covenant with a nation. To conserve the true religion 
amidst the corruptions which a second time were coming 
over the whole earth, God took Abraham and his family 

great truths which distinguish supernatural religion. See Wardlaw's "Chris- 
tian Ethics." 

It ought also to be observed that human governments, at the best, are obliged 
to leave many interests of their citizens uncared for, or to be cared for by 
other agents than their own; also, that human governments are often corrupt 
and fail to discharge their proper functions. Hence, the historian needs the 
supplement of individual biographies, and transactions of voluntary societies, 
and pictures of domestic and social life, in order to a full representation of his 
subject. Who would dispense with the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament 
history, or with Macaulay's picture of England in 1685 in his English 
history? 



11 

into special relations to himself. Yet God did not see fit 
to keep these special relations confined to a single family 
in successive generations. It entered directly into his 
plan, to make of this chosen family a nation, to set them 
in a land of their own, to give them a government of 
their own, to place them amidst the other nations of the 
earth. The influence of a nation was required to prepare 
the world for the coming of Messiah. So also in prophecy. 
Whatever may he thought of the heasts of the Kevelation, 
with their heads and horns, the heasts of Daniel are dis- 
tinctly stated to he ' 'Kingdoms upon Earth." They are 
States and Empires. It is, moreover, a kingdom which 
the Lord God will set up upon earth, which, as a little 
stone cut out of the mountain, shall smite and hreak and 
crush the kingdoms of earth, and itself occupy their 
place. u The saints of the Most High shall take the 
kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever." 

With this consideration of the idea of a nation, and of 
the importance of national relations, let us now, turning 
and heholding the race of men dwelling together in a 
family of nations, ask more particularly after their duties 
and destinies. 

I. The State has a religious character. Nations derive 
their existence as such from God. The State is of divine 
institution. It enjoys and exercises divine prerogatives. 
It is hence under duty to God; it has herein a religious 
character. 



12 

I do not propose to argue the question of the nature 
of civil government. I will not undertake to show that 
the theory of a social compact — the theory that all just 
powers of government are derived from the people, who 
voluntarily yield them up and consent to their exercise — 
that this theory is false. Enough for me — enough for 
you, I presume, — that it is unscriptural and infidel. 
Enough for us that the Scriptures say, "The powers 
that he are ordained of God," and the civil ruler is "the 
minister of God." I do not deny, — the Scriptures do 
not deny — the distinction hetween things civil and things 
religious. The Christian does not demand that the State 
shall he a theocracy. The State and the Church has each 
its appropriate end and sphere. The prime end of the 
State is the dispensing of justice, the protecting of its 
citizens, and the securing hy agriculture and commerce 
and the arts, and hy the intelligence and virtue of its 
citizens, of the general welfare. The prime end of the 
Church, so far as man is concerned, is the promotion of 
his spiritual and eternal good, through the agency of the 
Scriptures of revealed truth. The sphere of the one is 
the affairs of this life, — that of the other, the affairs of 
the life to come. Yet the State and the Church are not 
wholly separated and absolutely independent; and neither 
is independent of God. 

Again: Man in his entirety, is a religious being, and 
must carry his religion with him into all his relations. 
He is a religious citizen; so that not only is government 



13 

instituted by God and to be administered in his name, 
and is therefore religious, but being administered by men 
and upon men, who themselves are under responsibility to 
God, it is therefore again religious. 

And again: Although the prime end of the State be 
the promotion of man's temporal welfare, and that of the 
Church, the promotion of his spiritual welfare, and al- 
though the prime sphere of the State be the things of the 
present life, and that of the Church those of the life to 
come, yet things temporal and things spiritual, and the 
things of the present life and those of the life to come, 
have most intimate and important connections. The 
spiritual welfare tells upon the temporal, and the life to 
come is but the issue and result of the present life. 
Here, once more, is the State seen to have a religious 
character. All this admits of abundant proof and illus- 
tration. 

The State, then, has a character directly religious, due 
to its origin and nature, as instituted by God for doing 
his ministry with men. Hence, its laws should be 
founded on the highest views of the divine will ascer- 
tainable. It should enact that alone to be crime which 
God pronounces to be sin. And -again, the State has a 
character indirectly religious, in view of the fact, that it 
is administered by and upon those who are under reli- 
gious obligations, and in view of the fact that religion 
has material connection with that public welfare which 
it is the design and duty of the State to promote. The 
3 



14 

State must, on the one hand, respect the conscience of its 
citizens, leaving them free in religious opinions and 
practices; and yet, on the other hand, it must seek to 
promote the interests of true religion, with whose pros- 
perity the public welfare is vitally connected. 

It belongs to our government, my hearers, to conform 
its legislation to the principles of the Bible, and to im- 
pose its penalties for violated law, on the authority and 
with the sanction of the God of the Bible: and it belongs 
to our government, while indulging the largest and most 
liberal toleration of religious opinions and practices, still 
to seek the diffusion and establishment of Christianity 
throughout the length and breadth of our land. It is 
right that our government enforces, to a good degree, 
the observance of the Christian Sabbath. It is demanded 
that such observance be enforced in still larger degree. 
Our government, if it be bound to afford an education to 
the children of its citizens at all, is bound to give them 
a Christian education. The Bible should be in all our 
Public Schools. Chaplains should be provided for all 
State institutions, as they are for the Army and Navy. 

I know, indeed, that these views, when fully expressed, 
are not generally conceded. Many seem to think that 
government has no proper connection with religion. The 
cry of Church and State — of the invasion of religious 
rights — is raised against these views.* But not only has 

* See Congressional Reports — Col. R. M. Johnson on Sunday Mails, and 
Mr. Petit on Chaplains to Congress. Of course, in practically meeting and 



15 

government a necessary connection with religion, but 
what may seem still more objectionable, the freest gov- 
ernment must have reference, in its laws and institutions, 
to some form of religion, as that held by the great body 
of its citizens: and it is a mistake, as egregious as it is 
frequent, which supposes that because our Federal Con- 
stitution prescribes no religion as that of this country, 
and unites the government to no Church, our country is 
therefore as much Pagan or Infidel as it is Christian. 
The Constitution and the legislation of our country pre- 
suppose and take for granted, if they do not distinctly 
affirm, that Bible Christianity is the religion of this 
country. And they must do so, in order that this be a 
free government, since the great body of our people are 
believers in this religion. The President of the United 
States, standing in the portico of the Capitol, before the 
face of heaven and in view of the assembled people, 
swears upon the Bible to support the Constitution. The 
great functions of government cease to be exercised 
among us when the morning of the Christian Sabbath 
dawns. The Executive closes his mansion, Congress va- 
cates its halls, the judge comes down from his bench; — 

adjusting the two claims upon the government, first to respect the conscience 
of its citizens, and secondly, to promote the interests of religion, great diver- 
sity of opinion may exist even among those who hold to the same principles. 
There is room for a variety of prudential considerations. Yet the principles 
above expressed are discarded in the documents referred to, as they very often 
are elsewhere. 



16 

all pause and wait through the day of which the God 
of the Bible and the Lord our Saviour has said — it is 
mine. How solemn the testimony, and how frequently 
recurring, that this is a Christian nation. 

And w T hose rights are invaded by this observance of 
the Christian religion? The Jew's? Why he can observe 
his Sabbath on Saturday, and the law will protect him in 
the observance. None shall molest or make him afraid. 
The infidel's? It may be that he is put to inconvenience. 
He cannot have his cause tried in Court; he cannot lay 
his petition before Congress or the Executive; he may not 
be able to procure his letters from the Post Office: but is 
this an invasion of his rights? Who has the right to 
compel the judge to violate the Sabbath by trying his 
cause, or the mail-carrier or post master by delivering 
his letters? Would not the non-observance of the Sab- 
bath by the government operate at once to close the doors 
of office against four-fifths of our conscientious citizens? 
For the very reason, then, that the body of our people 
are Christians^ our government does and must, as a free 
government, respect the Christian religion; and further- 
more, because this religion is, as we know, the true reli- 
gion of G-od, and its influence most happy in. sustaining 
a free government, the State is bound not simply coldly 
to protect it in common with all forms of religion, but 
warmly to foster it as its own chosen religion. 

It would not be well longer to dwell on this topic. It 
may only be added that while the understanding of this 



17 

subject is of the very first consequence to us as a nation, 
there is no subject of general interest which seems to 
be so little understood.* 

Nations of necessity have a religious character. The 
civil government is of God's ordination, and does God's 
ministry. The civil government is administered by and 
upon men who are religious beings, who cannot under 
any circumstances divest themselves of their religious 
character. The prevalence of true religion amongst its 
citizens, is of the highest advantage to the State. 

Every nation has its God or its gods. "Blessed is the 
nation whose God is the Lord." Blessed is America so 
long as a pure, scriptural Christianity stimulates and 
governs its public life. 

It may be mentioned, but need not be discussed as 
a distinct topic, although its full consideration would 
greatly enforce the views just presented, that, as a matter 
of fact, God does regard nations as responsible persons, 
and does hold them in strict account to himself. The 
highest truth of universal history being the universal 
and comprehending providence of God, and the great 
factors of history being the nations of mankind, and the 
personal and responsible character of nations continuing 
only in this life and obtaining God's full judgment of 

* A volume entitled "The Position of Christianity in the United States," by 
Stephen Colwell, Esq. of Philadelphia, deserves the attentive and serious 
perusal of every American citizen. 



18 

mercy or wrath during the time of their present continu- 
ance, the historic page, recording the majestic movements 
of empires in their rise and fall, becomes unspeakably 
sublime as the record of the Almighty's manifested char- 
acter, smiling and blessing in their righteous prosperity, 
and frowning and overthrowing in their guilty doom. 

II. But let us pass to another view of nations. The 
race of men we behold in a family of nations. We may 
consider the relations of these nations one to another. 

I use the word family in reference to nations, to indi- 
cate at once, at the outset, and as fully as possible, their 
true relations. Nations are most closely and most ten- 
derly related. Their relation is one of blood, and their 
one parent is God. u He hath made of one blood all na- 
tions of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, 
and hath determined the times before appointed and the 
bounds of their habitation. " Each nation has a certain 
completeness in itself, yet it is but a partial completeness. 
Nations are still connected. They are dependent on one 
another. They are under obligations to one another. 
They are alike and together bound to the same God. 
They are a brotherhood before God their common Father. 
Patriotism has its limits, and philanthropy, its appro- 
priate and transcendent sphere. 

See the physical dependence of nations. Does not 
every nation on the face of the earth contribute to the 
conveniences and comforts and luxuries, not to say the 



19 

necessities of our every-day life? And do we not, as a 
nation, contribute something for the physical well-being 
of every nation in turn? What mean these thousand 
ships, at all times and in all directions traversing the 
main? Are they not all hastening on the wings of the 
wind, with their precious burdens, to do the ministries of 
nations one toward another? All commerce is significant, 
first of all, of national interdependence. 

This mutual dependence in things physical is, however, 
but an image of a higher dependence. What is civiliza- 
tion? Is it the culture of the national life? Yet how is 
national life cultivated? Is it by self-effort only, put 
forth from a stimulus self-begotten? Or is not civiliza- 
tion, like the education of the individual, in some measure 
dependent on the efforts of others? Must there not be 
an outward contact, and a stimulus provoked by such 
contact? Turn a child into the woods, and let him grow 
up to manhood without the society or the sight of his 
fellow-men. Where is his self-culture? He is a wild 
man of the woods; he is a barbarian. So nations need 
the stimulus which comes from a contact with their fel- 
low nations; and that, not only that they may advance 
in civilization, but even that they may save themselves 
from going down into barbarism. See China, the largest 
empire of men, yet separated from its neighbors by a stone 
wall. See Hindostan, insulated by surrounding seas and 
mountains, and destitute of commerce for many hundred 
years. See Africa, secluded from all the world by its 



20 

miasmatic regions and its fever-bouncl coasts, 
stereotyped character! What stagnant life! What hope- 
less barbarism! Interchange of thought among the na- 
tions ,, — communication of the products of art and liter- 
ature, and of the discoveries of science; — this is requisite 
for the welfare of nations. 

It would easily follow from this mutual dependence of 
nations, even if it did not come to us in a more direct 
way, that the intercommunion of nations should be 
guided and governed by religious principles, and for the 
end of highest mutual spiritual benefit. Nay, the state- 
ment may be made thus, in reference to us who know 
what true religion is, and who are bound to go according 
to the light we possess, and not according to the darkness 
of others, — that the intercommunion of nations should 
be conducted on Christian principles, and for the end of 
the diffusion and establishment of the Gospel of Christ. 

Blessed is the nation whose God being the Lord, who, 
as the first-born, and fullest-grown, and highest-favored, 
in the Lord's family of nations, becomes the loving in- 
structor and helper of the younger brethren. 

Looking this day upon the brotherhood of nations, we 
behold one sight which might excite our joyful hope, 
were it not for another closely connected with it, which 
must excite our astonishment and sorrow. We behold, 
on the one hand, the nations of the earth brought into 
close proximity and to the possibility of easy friendship, 
by the many physical improvements of the age. These 



21 

improvements, as we see, are made and first used by 
enlightened and Christian nations, — and we are encour- 
aged to ask, shall not these improvements he the chan- 
nels and vehicles for conveying to all nations the influ- 
ences of the gospel? In this bringing of the ends of the 
earth together, by those whose great glory is their pos- 
session of the knowledge of God's salvation, shall not "all 
the ends of the earth," through their agency, speedily 
be brought "'to see the salvation of God?" But alas! 
The ardency of our hopes is quenched, when we behold 
this day the most enlightened and powerful and happy 
of the whole brotherhood of nations, whose great tie is 
that of natural and Christian love, and whose great duty 
is to strengthen the cords of love amongst all their 
brotherhood, — when we behold these nations, submitting 
themselves to the demon of national hatred and revenge, 
employing the agencies which should convey the gospel 
of peace to all mankind, in transporting the munitions of 
war, and then putting forth all their skill and energies 
in planning and executing, with the aids of the most 
matured science, and by means of the most ingenious and 
mighty enginery, the devilish work of national desolation 
and destruction. 

Can we, my hearers, conceive of a higher and more 
horrid contradiction of the whole spirit of our religion 
than a national war? And can there be anything more 
discouraging to him who hopes for the speedy diffusion 
of the Gospel amidst the nations, than the contemplation 
4 



22 

of the present war, — a war not only waged by nations 
the most Christian, but a war involving no principle, 
and devoid of all glory, — a war stamped in its every 
feature, and chargeable at its every step, with the attri- 
bute and the crime of murder. 

when shall war be recognized in • its brutality and 
fiendishness and hellish horrors? When shall patriotism 
separate itself from a proud ambition and a cruel revenge, 
and become the loving handmaid of a pure philanthropy? 
When shall Christian nations become capable of a Chris- 
tian transaction? Must "the sword devour forever?" 

III. We may not omit on such an occasion, and with 
such a subject before us, to speak of the destiny of our 
own nation. 

It would seem from many considerations often pre- 
sented, that God intends great things for us as a nation.' 
The time and circumstances of the original settlement of 
our country, and the character of the original settlers, is 
regarded as one indication of promise. How long God 
kept this continent concealed from the view of the civil- 
ized world! And, when it was discovered, how long he 
kept back the nations from its successful settlement! Not 
until the Protestant Keformation had wrought its great 
results^ and nations were prepared for the work under its 
tuition, did God begin to people this country; — and even 
then, it wj,s a i 'winnowed seed" which he planted here. 
Men tried in the fires of persecution, and strong in the 



23 

love of God and the desire of liberty, laid the founda- 
tions of our republic. Is not this peculiar beginning 
prophetic of a glorious consummation? 

Our past experience and present condition seem to 
confirm the tokens of our auspicious beginning. Colo- 
nial dependence has given way to National independence. 
Thirteen States have increased to thirty-one. Three mil- 
lions of people have increased to thirty. Immense forests 
have been subdued^and the soil yields supplies for the 
famishing of other lands. Great manufactories crowd 
our rivers and darken our towns. Our commerce whitens 
every sea and swarms in every port. Our people are 
intelligent, and virtuous, and happy beyond all example. 
Our government is strong and efficient. What is needed 
to make our destiny glorious, but just to go on in the way 
that we have come? 

Then see the prospect which invites us on. Vast ter- 
ritories are still unoccupied. What shall prevent the 
flood of population from pouring westward and overflow- 
ing these territories? Our internal resources have only 
begun to be developed. What shall prevent their utmost 
and magnificent development? The commerce of the 
Pacific waits to be ours. How long till Pacific rail- 
roads shall bind our eastern and western coasts together, 
and our country, standing in the midst of the earth and 
reaching out its arms on either hand, clasp the entire 
sphere in its embrace? ~ Our country is in the dew of its 
rejoicing youth, and has but the dimmest consciousness 



24 

and dream of its own strength, and who can predict the 
glory of its manhood, when in the fullest self-conscious- 
ness, it shall exert to the utmost its matured and mighty 
energies? 

Thus are we accustomed to talk. Our destiny is mani- 
fest — our glory is inevitahle. It is pleasant to talk thus, 
and it is unpleasant to talk otherwise. Yet we ought to 
desire to see and know the truth. Self-flattery is an 
odious folly. Is our destiny, thefc manifest? Is our 
glory inevitahle? Has G-od so conspicuous!/ favored us 
that he cannot but continue to bless? Ah! It is our 
self-flattery and odious folly to think so. 

We need not look again, to our history or our prospects, 
to gather evidences of a different destiny, although such 
evidences might not be wanting. Yes, we might find 
the evidences which, duly weighed, would make us shud- 
der in view of our possible or probable future. We might 
come to think it very problematical whettier our country 
has sufficient vital force to work into good American citi- 
zens the hordes of infidels, paupers, criminals, cast upon 
our shores from the nations of the old world: — whether 
our country has sufficient wisdom to guide its own vexed 
domestic questions to a proper and satisfactory issue, and 
to balance and regulate the rival and numberless in- 
terests of a country widening indefinitely in extent;^— 
whether — but no, we do not need thus to forecast the 
future to ascertain our probable destiny. We may de- 
termine the question by the teaching of God's word. 



25 

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." And 
blessed is that nation alone. Here is the solution of the 
question of our destiny. It is in making the Lord the 
God of our country, that we are safe — that we are pros- 
perous — that our glorious destiny becomes inevitable. 
Our destiny is left to ourselves. The means of its 
glory are placed in our hands. We may use them or 
not, as we will. 

And now, I utter it to you, my hearers and fellow- 
citizens, as the solemn testimony of the Lord our God, 
that so surely as ignorance and moral corruption and 
lust of power, become generally prevalent, and popery and 
infidelity attain the supremacy among us, it matters not 
at all that we have had a ballot-box, and a free press, 
and free schools, and the whole circle of liberal institu- 
tions, — these will become but the insignia of our shame; 
it matters not that we have had a boundless territory, 
and a teeming soil, and mighty cities, and universal 
commerce, — the grass will grow again on our prairies, — 
the red man return to his forsaken forests, — our cities be- 
come black with desolation, and the sails of our commerce 
be rent on the seas, or the hulks of our commerce rot 
at our wharves; it matters not that God has been wonder- 
fully gracious to us as a nation, — the more wonderful the 
grace, the deeper the insult and crime of our despising 
it, and the deeper our doom; — this, this is our manifest 
destiny. 



26 

And it is only as America teaches her children to fear 
God and do their duty; it is only as our virtuous citizen- 
ship escape from the chains of corrupt party and procure 
for themselves a fair representation in the offices of gov- 
ernment — exerting themselves for the purification of cor- 
rupt men, rather than for the promotion of their evil de- 
signs; it is 3 in a word, only as the power of our blessed 
religion shall go out from the hearts of the truly pious 
in our land, leavening the mass of the population and 
bringing them under its sway; — it is only as we truly 
make the Lord our country's God, that we can hope to 
be blessed, and can, with any just confidence, await our 
country's future glory. 

£Teed I, my hearers, deduce and enforce the exhorta- 
tions of this subject? Or do they not lie upon its surface, 
and do they not make their own appeal to every patriot's 
and Christian's heart? 

The God of nations, looking forth upon our happy land 
this day, may be conceived as breathing the benevolent 
desire once expressed in behalf of his ancient people, "0 
that there were such an heart in them, that they would 
fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that 
it might be well with them and with their children 
forever." 



27 



N. B. In the delivery of the foregoing discourse, 
the following remarks were interjected near the com- 
mencement: 

"Permit me to state to you my conviction, that desira- 
ble as it is that days of religious observance be appointed 
by our civil authorities, the regular appointment of an- 
nual fast-days or thanksgivings, will not secure for any 
long period a general and hearty observance. I should 
much prefer the appointment by our civil authorities of 
a fast-day, in view of any public calamity impending or 
experienced, or of a day of thanksgiving, in view of 
deliver ence or exemption from such calamity. In such 
case we might hope that the day would secure a suitable 
and profitable observance/ ' 

It is the writer's apprehension that days of special 
religious observance occurring at regular intervals^ and 
hence occurring, oftentimes, when there is no special 
providential call for a religious service, and being desti- 
tute of the binding obligation a divine appointment, 
will degenerate into mere holidays; and in his opinion, 
the providential call ought to guide our rulers in the 
designation of times of special religious observance; 
so that when we fast, we do so in direct view of special 
calamity, and when we render thanks, we do so for 
special mercies actually experienced. The thanksgiving 
of last year occurred at a time of most trying financial 
embarrassment, at the close of a season remarkable for 



28 

its drought and meagre harvests , and for the prevalence 
of disease and the destruction of property by land and 
sea. Surely, God called us then to humble ourselves 
and fast, rather than to rejoice and give thanks, and a 
thanksgiving service was appropriate only for the reason 
that Grod always deals with us better than we deserve. 
We need the evident appropriateness of the service to 
secure its continued and suitable observance. Who does 
not remember the appointment by our national Execu- 
tive, some years since, of a day of national humiliation, 
when a visitation of the cholera was threatened? And 
how solemn and affecting the service of that day through- 
out the land! In New England, the regular, annual 
thanksgiving preserves its sacredness through customs 
and associations, which were established in the very in- 
fancy of the country, and which have grown up with 
it, — customs and associations, which cannot elsewhere be 
created. 






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